Bruce Coville

Bruce Coville was born in Syracuse, New York on May 16, 1950. He grew up around the corner from his grandparents' dairy farm. As a child, he loved Mary Poppins and Dr. Dolittle, and he can remember getting up ahead of everyone else in his family so he could huddle in a chair and read The Voyages of Dr. Doolittle. He also read Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys , Tom Swift , and zillions of comic books.

The first time (he remembers) thinking he would like to be a writer was in sixth grade when his teacher, Mrs. Crandall, gave the class an extended period of time to write a long story. He loved doing it, and began to work seriously at becoming a writer when he was seventeen.

Like many people, he was not able to start selling his stories right away. He had many other jobs along the way, including toy maker, gravedigger, cookware salesman, and assembly line worker.

Eventually he became an elementary teacher, and worked with second and fourth graders. (Note: One of the teachers at our school, Mrs. Lamson, had Mr. Coville as a fourth grade teacher when she was young. Mr. Coville still recognized her after all these years!)